Summer of hard knocks puts teens at risk

INJURIES from skateboard and scooter accidents have increased over the past decade at the same time as bicycle-related injuries have fallen, leading to calls for more teenagers to wear helmets.

The head of the AMA NSW, Brian Owler, who is a neurosurgeon, said he is seeing too many children injured while skateboarding.

''At Christmas time we always see a peak in injuries, just because people are on holidays,'' he said. ''It's probably a bit of the new presents but also because people are not shut up inside.''

He said fractures and less deadly injuries were common but he saw a couple of children with blood clots on their brains each year, and had seen deaths.

''There was one kid who ended up in a nursing home,'' he said.

Associate Professor Owler, who helped create the ''Don't Rush'' road safety campaign, said the message that helmets were important needed to be spread by young people.

''The only way that you can get teenagers to wear helmets is if other teenagers say it's a good idea,'' he said. ''I think it's a bit of a cultural thing, in the same way that as helmets weren't cool years ago, before the law changed and people weren't compelled to wear them.''

Data provided to Fairfax Media by the Commission for Children and Young People found there has been an average annual decrease in children being admitted to hospital for bicycle-related injuries of about 2.9 per cent in the decade since the 1998-99 financial year. But injuries relating to so-called ''pedestrian conveyances'', such as skateboards, scooters and rollerskates, increased by an average of 2.6 per cent.

The NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People, Megan Mitchell, said it was important for children to enjoy sporting activities outside but parents should ensure they did so as safely as possible by wearing helmets.

''Accidents do happen but let's keep them as minor as possible, we don't want kids going to hospital or having a lasting disability,'' she said.

According to the recent Serious Childhood Community Injury in New South Wales report, more than 1200 children were hospitalised after falling from pedestrian conveyances in 2009-10.

The only bigger cause of hospitalisation from falls is play equipment.

Ms Mitchell said anecdotally it seemed summer was a more dangerous time.

''Kids want to try out their new gear and that's fine … but it's also important that when they're doing something for the first time with new equipment, in new places on holidays, their parents make sure they have a level of competence,'' she said.

''We don't want to be a nanny state but, at the same time, we want to say to parents and children themselves that the best way to protect yourself from these types of injuries is by wearing a helmet''.

She said drowning was the biggest risk in summer, and teenagers were also more likely to get injured in fights than at other times of the year.